Evolution quotes: The context of arguments 2 May 2013 105. All testing, all confirmation and disconfirmation of a hypothesis takes place already within a system. And this system is not a more or less arbitrary and doubtful point of departure for all our arguments: no, it belongs to the essence of what we call an argument. The system is not so much the point of departure, as the element in which arguments have their life. [Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty] This is Ludwig’s way of discussing the logical context of arguments. Philosophy
History Hume’s Dialogues: A coloured edition 18 Mar 201212 Feb 2019 Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is one of the very best philosophical works ever written, as I was reminded this morning while seeking a passage. But it is not easily available in a decent format online. Sure, you can download a facsimile of the second edition (1779) from Archive.Org, and I… Read More
Biology More on reductionism 26 Jan 201326 Jan 2013 I am presently teaching in a history subject dealing with ideas of nature, and I notice that the historians we are using often refer to a distinction between reductionism and holism. The former is the Bad Old Science (“we murder to dissect”) and the latter is the New Improved Science. This… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design Closet Darwinism, and definitions 12 Apr 201412 Apr 2014 Every so often, somebody makes the case that “Darwinism”, “Darwinist” and “Darwinian”, being the generic noun, the individual term, and the adjective of Darwin’s name and therefore (supposedly) theory, are dead terms that cause nothing but harm (see Scott and Branch 2009). Larry Moran has just made this very argument,… Read More
So that is what confabulation is about. I’ll work on it for a month or two. In the meantime I will concentrate on the point of departure – of a portrait Charles Darwin which has yet to wing its way from this Sceptred Isle in your direction.
“Ludwig” has always to me seemed incapable of discussing one topic at a time. Here he drags in approximately one level of metatopic, which for him is a miracle of simplification.